Ida by Elaine Mintzer

Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida, by Ivan Albright, 1930.

 Ida

            We’ve all sold ourselves at one time
or another for a glass of wine,
 
            a crystal mirror,
a twenty left on the hall table.
 
            Sold ourselves to keep going,
a kind of cannibalism,
 
            until our bodies showed the bite of every tooth,
our flesh gave up, sunk
 
            in lumps at the ankles, those joints of least resistance,
swollen over the tops of our shoes.
 
            We’ve been undone, like the cane unwoven
from the wicker, patches frayed at the hems.
 
            Still, looking into the mirrors of our own eyes,
we see the girls we were,
 
            elegant girls whose cut glass vases remain unchipped,
whose lace doilies cover our sins and scars.

Elaine Mintzer

Elaine Mintzer has been published in a number of journals and anthologies including Cultural Weekly, Rattle, Silver Birch Press, Lindenwood Review, Cyclamens and Swords, and Voices Israel.  Her work was featured in 13 Los Angeles Poets. Elaine’s first collection, Natural Selections, was published by Bombshelter Press.  She writes and teaches writing in Los Angeles.